4.09.2008

fast does not mean hurry

We just finished a 3 day fast as a spiritual family. If you're not of this tribe, that can sound legalistic and bizarre. It was none of those. It was just horrible. :)

Actually, that's an overstatement. It wasn't horrible. The first Mon, Tues and Wed of each month, we all fast and gather twice a day for intercessory prayer meetings (already, some of you are thinking "all you guys do is pray anyway...."). What sets these days apart is everyone joins in two prayer meetings specifically geared towards intercession rather than devotion, at 6am, 10am, 4pm, or 8pm. Come to think of it, there are probably a couple of options in the middle of the night too.

These three days are sort of the CTRL-ALT-DELETE of the prayer movement. We cancel most meetings to allow our work groups no excuses and spend these three days asking, seeking and knocking at a level a little different than normal.

The idea of corporate prayer is one that does not have a lot of traction in the present day church. The idea of corporate weakness - intentionally spending times when you're NOT at your best - is almost unheard of. We're told to put our best foot forward...even if our best foot stinks like a gym sock.

Let me break it down for you. Your best foot is not so great. My best effort falls painfully short of the goal. I can't impress my way into the kingdom, so I have joined myself to a family that intentionally tries to go the other route.

It's 10:15pm, and even though we broke our fast this evening, I'm still pretty shot. The only reason I'm up is Matt Gilman is on the webstream singing "You are beautiful, my sweet sweet song...I will sing again." He's sang it for about twelve minutes straight now and my heart is starting to sing along. Seth is pulling some very strange sounds out of his guitar even as James contorts his bass into previously unheard tones.

God bless them. God bless the webstream. Every time I think about breaking down and buying a television, I'm reminded we'd have to shut off the webstream to watch the tv.

2 comments:

You know... I must say, we own a TV. And since discovering the webstream, we never turn it on! Well, actually, that's not true. We have it hooked up so that we play the webstream big over the TV, so... yeah... I guess it does serve a purpose. ;)

Thanks for all you do! You are a blessing to people you don't even know, like me. The whole IHOP team is a blessing! So, thanks again. See you soon! (I come to KC on Sunday! Weeee!)